I saw a post on another board where someone stated that Dorothy Dandridge should have won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in this film instead of Grace Kelly for THE COUNTRY GIRL. Personally, I think Dandridge definitely deserved the nomination, but I think the Best Actress Oscar that year should have gone to Judy Garland for A STAR IS BORN. Opinions?
shareI have to agree. As much as I thought Dorothy was great as Carmen, Judy was absolutely astounding in A Star is Born. Grace Kelly wasn't even on par with either of them in her movie IMO.
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Good post and I agree with everything you've said. Dorothy's nomination was deserved and made history but the Oscar should have gone to Judy.
shareI'm black as well and as much as I was thrilled to see Dorothy Dandridge receive the first Best Actress Oscar nomination for a black woman, I still think the award that year should have gone to Garland. I finally saw THE COUNTRY GIRL a couple of years ago and it did not change how I felt one iota. Garland was robbed.
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While I wish Dorothy Dandridge could have won that Oscar, I would have been surprised if she beat Judy Garland.
Maybe giving it to Grace Kelly was some kind of concession. By the way shortly after Kelly won she quit films to do her royal duties full time.
Well as far as the singing goes, Dorothy and
Harry could sing quite well. For some
reason, the studios wanted their voices
dubbed but I don't feel they needed it.
Dorothy has a great voice for film and
so does Harry.
And yes I would have liked Dorothy to
win because I liked her performance
as Carmen Jones. She played against
type and she did an excellent job.
Oh and I remember reading that
Dorothy wanted Judy to win if
she didn't because they were
good friends (smile).
XOXO-Tam
I agree, I absoulutely ADORE Dorothy, but I do believe that Judy was GREAT in A Star Is Born. I think Dorothy should've won and Oscar or something for Porgy And Bess. But I do remember the biopic of Judy Garland when Judy's friend or sister or whoever said, "There's no way Dandridge is going to win it". That kind of upset me.
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Otto Preminger has said that he wanted to keep the musical true to it's roots, the opera. It always was an opera prior to it being made into a film, and Otto wanted operatic voices.
shareThis is me! "DottiezBiggestFan". Just browsing through the message board and found myself lol. I've since seen the Judy Garland biopic again & I remembered the line incorrectly. Her friend said "Dandridge isn't going to get it--not in this town." Something to that extent.
My thoughts still remain, love Dorothy to death and thought she was amazing in Carmen but Judy put her heart and soul into A Star is Born. Brings tears to my eyes every time.
{-Peace...and love.-}
I saw Carmen Jones, A Star Is Born, and The Country Girl, and I have to ask this one question to all of you: was America really ready for an African-American woman to recieve the Best Actress Oscar in 1955? was America able to accept a star reborn in a film remake such as A Star Is Born? or was America only able to accept the actress who honestly and realistically portrayed the wife of an alcoholic?
In regards to Dandridge, she certainly lit up the screen with her beauty and her talent, but, the civil rights movement wasn't really affecting the national conscience at all but in its early prominence by 1955. And while Judy conquered A Star Is Born, I couldn't really see a good acting scene until her producer confronts her on her husband's alcoholism, and while alcoholism was a social vice worth recognizing through film, it didn't really do the cause justice as much as Grace Kelly's performance in The Country Girl.
This is a bit of a no-brainer. Judy Garland's performance is one of the great non Oscar winning roles (along with Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard). There was a very famous quote from Groucho Marx who said Garland not winning was the biggest robbery since Brinks. For me there is no real truth in the previous post questioning whether America was ready for an African American win. Garland is in a completely different league to Dandridge. In my personal view, Carmen Jones is a very weak musical. What confuses me is they completely reinvent the Carmen opera and yet dub the singing voices of the two leads with Operatic voices.
share1954- Jim Crow, " Southern justice," KKK ring a bell?
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Well, that may be, but The Country Girl was her best work.
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Yes, but I love it when beauty transforms to the beast, so to speak. Kelly was considered beautiful and classy, and her film roles before TCG reflected that, but I was just blown away how Kelly could go from grace to gutter and play gutter so well, that, well, the inevitable.
shareThe Academy wasn't ready to give one of the leading awards to anyone black at that time. The nomination may have damaged Dandridge's career in that she, or whoever advised her, suddenly thought she was a movie star who should've had a choice of roles. The roles for black actresses weren't there in 1955 or '56. In Donald Bogle's bio of her, there is much discussion of Dandridge agonizing over taking a supporting role in THE KING AND I and eventually turning it down. (Rita Moreno played Tuptim instead). Preminger, who was involved personally with Dandridge for some time, also stoked her ego, and influenced her negatively, IMHO.
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Haven't seen the Country Girl but other than being stunningly beautiful never liked Grace Kelly (that annoying British(?) fake accent and high maintenance manners. I would've voted Judy because of the history and it was something of a last gasp movie comeback for her. I think Garland only made one movie after this.
Dandridge deserved it more than either Kelly or Garland, Kellys performance was a bit dull ( though she was better in both Rear Window and Dial M for Murder) and Garlands was Oscar bait and she overacted in several scenes .In fact of all five nominees I'd say both Kelly and Garland were the weakest . Dandridge should have won , if not her then Hepburn.
shareA. Hepburn had won the award the previous year, she wasn't going to win again so soon. As I said years ago, the nomination and hoopla proved to be a dead end for Ms. Dandridge. She had a successful nightclub career, but a sustained film career was nearly impossible at that time (of course, in later generations, Halle Berry and Jennifer Hudson sorta "disappeared" after actually winning Oscars) But at least there were choices open to the, I spoze. There was virtually nothing tangible for Ms. Dandrige who should've able to strike while the iron was hot. Maybe THE KING AND I wouldn't have been so bad for her.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?